Thu Jan 15 - Sat Jan 31 The 8th Annual SF Sketchfest The San Francisco Comedy Festival Email SF Sketchfest Website

Description SF Sketchfest was founded in 2001 by David Owen, Cole Stratton and Janet Varney as a way to showcase the talents of six Bay Area sketch comedy groups: The Fresh Robots, Kasper Hauser, The Meehan Brothers, Please Leave the Bronx, Totally False People and White Noise Radio Theatre. The festival debuted in January of 2002 at the Shelton Theatre in downtown San Francisco and has grown rapidly into a nationally recognized comedy festival that mixes national headliners, local favorites and the best up-and-coming groups from throughout North America for a month of sketch, improv, stand-up and alternative comedy. A favorite with audiences, critics, and performers alike, the festival has grown substantially to become a highly anticipated artistic showcase that consistently delivers top quality comedic performances, tributes and panel discussions. Audiences have overwhelmingly responded to SF Sketchfest's diverse programming which has featured performers from every major North American television comedy smash of the last 25 years including Saturday Night Live, The Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, Arrested Development, The Upright Citizens Brigade, The State, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Strangers With Candy, The Simpsons, The Daily Show and more. SF Sketchfest offers its audiences the rare opportunity to see their favorite performers in intimate live performances and discussions. David Owen co-founded SF Sketchfest in 2001 with Cole Stratton and Janet Varney. Along with Stratton, Varney and Gabriel Diani, he was a founding member of the comedy group Totally False People, which was featured at SF Sketchfest, the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and SketchFest Seattle. He wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the feature film Stuck, which is distributed by Film Threat, and works as a Festival Producer with the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival and the Stanford Jazz Festival. At The Purple Onion he presented Zach Galifianakis, Todd Barry, Judah Friedlander, Matt Besser and the legendary Mort Sahl. He is on the Board of Directors for Comedy Day in Golden Gate Park and he lives in San Francisco. Cole Stratton is currently "paying his dues" in Los Angeles, where he enjoys losing parts to minorly more successful actors such as Barry Levinson's nephew. Due to planet alignment, he has appeared on TV's Nash Bridges, re-enacted on America's Most Wanted, played with puppies and Betty White on the Animal Planet original The Retrievers, thrown-down like the sarcastic white boy he is on Wilmer Valderrama's Yo Momma, and was a cast member on NBC's competitive comedy show Comedy Colosseum. He's a lead in the indie comedy Callback opposite Kevin Farley, and has also appeared in the films Around the Fire and Dead Man on Campus. He's also hawked wares in national commercials for Verizon, Popeye's Chicken and most recently in a Wilco-scored VW spot. In addition to co-founding SF Sketchfest, he also co-founded the Bay Area sketch collective Totally False People (who performed at the 2004 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado), and LA's improvising Pretty, Pretty Pony and Mosey. He performs weekly with The Westside Eclectic's house improv team, Ladies and Gentlemen. Janet Varney works as both a producer and actor in Los Angeles. She has most recently appeared on such shows as CBS's How I Met Your Mother, Entourage, the Steven Spielberg-produced series On the Lot, USA’s Psych, and finished a sketch pilot for Fox with Will and Grace's Sean Hayes in March 2008. She also just completed roles in the feature films Still Waiting and Nic and Tristan, and is enjoying her fourth year as host of TBS's Dinner and a Movie. She performs live with improv group Mosey, produces and hosts the variety show Theme Park with Cole Stratton, and is currently working on the 60 Frames broadband series Beneath Contempt she created and wrote with Stephen Brophy.

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